These kinds of posts aimed at making the case for LAPD's worth are incredibly harmful for a number of reasons... 
First... they're responding to the effort by members of the city council to explore alternative models to traffic policing that don't involve armed officers and the larger convo. around #defunding police.
*It's a welcome effort in that it'd reduce the likelihood of profiling/stop&frisk or the potential for traffic stops to escalate/result in the death of Black ppl. But it doesn't address how to avoid those issues in the cases LAPD would be called to deal with. But I digress.*
Speaking of stop-and-frisk, was this weapon found during a lawful search?
We're told only that the gun was found during a traffic stop during which something else happened for reasons unknown but about which we should be pleased.
We're told only that the gun was found during a traffic stop during which something else happened for reasons unknown but about which we should be pleased.
The Metro division came under fire for aggressively using traffic stops as opportunities to practice stop-and-frisk, but South Central residents have long complained this to be a much more widespread practice. latimes.com/local/lanow/la…
And the reference to the gun owner being a gang member (another reason we should be pleased bc "gang member" automatically equals "criminal"), but how exactly was that determined?
The state had to put a stop to the use of the gang database because it is rife with so many inconsistencies and so much false information: latimes.com/california/sto…
The Metro division in particular has come under intense scrutiny for its role in falsifying gang records
latimes.com/california/sto…
latimes.com/california/sto…
But all that aside, the fact that they use the word "member" plays on the public's ignorance about gangs and what it means to be affiliated - namely, the extent to which it runs on a spectrum.
There were est. to be somewhere around 45,000 gang members in L.A. county last year, the bulk of which are in L.A. city. There is no county data on gang-related murders, but of the 283 homicides in 2015, ~170 were thought to be gang related. homicide data: latimes.com/local/lanow/la…
I'm not saying that's a low number - it's appalling that we don't pay more attention to the loss of youth of color. But I am saying that if all 45,000 "members" were as dangerous as they're depicted as being by LAPD, the numbers would probably be much higher.
Which brings me to a point I have made several times recently, given LASD's efforts to justify shooting #AndresGuardado in the back: Why don't we ever talk about why folks, particularly youth, are armed:
Most of the people I know who are armed and who are gang affiliated (and even those who are not) carry weapons to defend themselves. Not because they're looking forward to having to use their weapon or actively looking to do others harm.
And the reason so many are gang affiliated to begin with is because they could never count on police to keep them safe. I dive into what that looks like in practice here, mostly looking at the decisions of Latino youth: la.streetsblog.org/2014/03/21/to-…
And I talk about that with regard to the history behind the growth of Black gangs, which have their roots in self-help groups aimed at pushing back against incursions into their communities by white mobs (which police were largely complicit with), here: la.streetsblog.org/2019/08/15/nip…
Someone I know is currently fighting just this kind of charge in court, after being caught w/ a gun during a targeted traffic stop a few yrs ago. He is a gang "member" who has been facilitating peace processes for a few years now & hasn't bn active in the streets for a long time.
But because of who he is and the communities he moves through, he feels he has to be armed to both defend himself and his family and de-escalate a situation should someone get the idea he can be messed with.
The most dangerous time for gang-affiliated youth is when they leave that life behind. No one has their back & former homies might be the ones they face the biggest threats from. Slimm agonized abt whether to get a gun as he tried to move fwd w/ his life. la.streetsblog.org/2018/05/01/i-c…
I don't know who LAPD picked up & I don't know under what circumstances. But I do know that decades of suppressive policing have played an impt role in the decisions folks make to be armed, and that law enforcement subsequently takes advantage of that to justify the suppression.
